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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

It's St. Patrick's day in the Burg, and when bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is involved in anything, even an apparently innocuous holiday, expect the unexpected - not to mention the hilarious.

The first sign of something a bit odd comes when Stephanie spots Grandma Mazur dragging an enormous duffel bag down the street. A little man all dressed in green tries to wrest the bag from her, but when Stephanie and her friend Lula join in the fracas, they manage to scare him off...but that's just the beginning.

What do you get when you have a wounded racehorse, a leprechaun, a pot of gold, a bloated mobster gunning for stolen money, Lula with a rocket launcher, a streaker at a car wash, and the most memorable "diversion" in the history of Atlantic City casinos? Just another day in (and out of) the Burg.

This is the third in a series of related holiday books involving Stephanie Plum. These books are novellas, short and sweet and very funny. They keep fans from going too stir crazy while waiting for the numbered mystery series books to be published and, as with all of Evanovich's books, they never fail to make me grin.

This was the first one I have listened to, however - customers at my library have been raving about Lorelie King's narration of Stephanie's stories. Many of them wouldn't consider reading one of these books because they enjoy the voices and characterization that King lends to them. At first I had a bit of trouble because, since I've been reading them for so long, it turned out that I had my own very clear ideas of what their voices sound like in my mind. But after a while King won me over, and now I'm thinking about revisiting earlier installments in the series in audio format, just for fun. Stephanie fans will not be disappointed in this short and sweet addition to the series. And readers may never think about leprechauns in quite the same way ever again...